There is a time to start and a time to end. This story has to be finished and for those of you who were reading it during the company hour, you've got to get back to work :-). Those who took a break from their study, you better get back to your thesis work :-). Well my friends, I told you earlier that we loved Milan. Actually, after we had the time to digest all our experiences in the 5 European cities we visited this time, we loved them all. Each city was unique and brought good memories, including the 'free tour' to Murano :-). It was compounded by our 'luck' that we met C and H in Zurich who offered us to stay at their apartment on our last night in Europe after we arrived back from Salzburg. Imagine if we had to go to Camping Seebuch and endured the hassle of just one night camping. I might not be able to smile back to all the Singapore Airlines stewardesses on our Zurich-Singapore flight :-).
Our train from Salzburg, after passing many beautiful and scenic places around the border of Austria and Switzerland, arrived around noon on May 21. Knowing Zurich well then, we stored our backpacks at the train station and we took advantage of our Eurailpass. Its holder was entitled to a free Lake Zurich tour. However, because of the time, we took the shorter (one hour) version of the tour. It turned out that we were on the public boat (not an exclusive tour boat) that stopped at many places. Eventually getting bored as that lake was nothing special, we got out at a place called Kirchberg. The idea was to visit Lindt chocolate factory near there. Bad luck this time because the tour was only in the morning. Lonely Planet misguided us again when it said that visitors would get ample sample of free Lindt chocolate. It was a lie, cause we were offered only ONE small piece of Lindt chocolate. It was even smaller in size and less in quantity than those we gave to our neighbours' kids at Halloween time :-). No wonder Switzerland is a rich country :-).
I was kidding of course because C who was so generous with her time and everything else for us, picked us up at the station after we returned from our do-it-yourself tour. We had dinner together and continued chatting till the evening with her and her husband. I enjoyed talking to H because he has a hobby to visit hot countries like Indonesia and Kenya (safari). When I asked what is his favourite place in Indonesia, he said Bangka (island). I was alarmed and of course demanded a justification :-). He had been there several times and he said, the beaches were perfect. I didn't want to argue with my host, of course. But later on, without H knowing I verified his statement with my Bangka island relative who swore without the bible that H was right :-). Since my wife doesn't like hot places too much, I doubt that I will ever visit Bangka island. C showed us an exemplary generosity of an Indonesian, not only by driving us to the airport, but walked together to the departure gate on our last day in Europe, May 22. She could do so because she worked for Garuda Indonesia (airline) office in Zurich and thus has special privileges.
I have many friends and some of you guys do not believe in God which is fine with me. After all, in my birth country called Indonesia, it seems that the more people believe in God, the more determined they are to kill one another. So, whatever you believe in, the canoe "god", the cycling "deity", they all must have worked together with the God that I believe in making our European trip such a wonderful experience. Whether you gave us your blessings and prayed for us or you just said farewell, I thank you again for your prayers and your best wishes. It is Cecilia's belief and I had to agree with her if I still want to win in Scrabble :-) that it was more than just luck, we had Divine Providence. To our "sponsors" of this trip, our family and friends, danke schoen noch einmal, grazie mille, terima kasih berat. Please pray again for our next Australia and New Zealand trips, to start on June the 14th. :-) Greetings from Jakarta, bye for now.
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Friday May 17 was a perfect day. I woke up quite early, 5:30 AM and by 7 AM, after a filling breakfast of super-bihun (Indonesian rice noodle) we went to the train station. We were a bit fortunate that the train to Salzburg started from West Bahnhof and stopped at Huetteldorf, the station where our bus from the campground ended. Thus, we were able to catch an early train and by 11 AM already arrived at the Salzburg train station. We knew where to go, Camping Kasern but we did not know which bus (number) to take. After asking a couple bus drivers, we were told to take bus number 33 first and changed to 15 later on. The number 33 driver was quite helpful. When he stopped at the two routes intersection, he told us where we had to wait. Danke schoen, thanks in German went a long way, compounded by the fact that we were carrying two big packs plus one more day pack pour moi. It made people really wanting to help :-).

The camping fee in Salzburg was cheaper than in Vienna, in fact very cheap, only 12 Euros per night. The campground was not as nice as Wien West but quite OK. Actually, it was quite scenic because it was at the outskirt of the city and has an ice-cap mountain as a background. Salzburg was pretty hot on that day and the day after so that we had to put sun-screen lotion. Knowing that this was another place we could stay long, we bought the 72 hours Salzburg card that entitled us to go to major tourist attractions plus free public transportation.
On the Saturday, we cooked our last 'Indomie goreng' (Indonesian instant fried noodle) for breakfast. It was our saviour in helping us to manage the cost. Imagine if we had to eat breakfast in the restaurant every morning. For 10 Euros you might still be hungry. We couldn't wait to go to downtown and checked famous places like Mozart Wohnhaus (residence), Festung or an old castle-fortress, Marionetten or puppet on a string, and some others. I calculated at the end of the day, had we had to pay individually, all those visits would have cost us 26 Euros. So in just one day, we almost broke even the cost of the Salzburg 3 days card, 32 Euros. Actually if I added the transportation cost, we already won :-).
Just when we were finished preparing supper, our friends from Stuttgart, Germany, J and L came over. We already made a plan since Cecilia and I were in Toronto, to travel near Salzburg on the Sunday with them. They stayed at a nice 3-star hotel but quite far from Salzburg, in a small town called Puch. They already had dinner so we ate by ourselves and offered our nice soup to J who likes to eat :-). Yes, she is the chef of her own restaurant in Stuttgart, a small Indonesian cafe. We chatted with them over beer by the reception office, a distance from our tent. When it got dark, also since they already travelled for about 5 hours from Stuttgart on that day, J and L left and we returned to our tent.
I haven't told you yet that since morning, a young couple from Germany (easy to see from their car) pitched their tent next to us. The girl was quite voluptuous, you know what I mean. Her hair was blonde and I named her 'Marylin Monroe' :-). Well my dear friends, you know that Cecilia and I like to go camping. We have been to numerous campground in Ontario, some of them like Algonquin, Grundy Lake and Bon Echo Provincial Park, about 10 times each. But never in our lifetime, did we ever hear sounds like what was coming from 'Marylin' and her partner when we approached our tent, next to them. It was undescribable, even an X-rated movie didn't come near :-). That's why I said the camping fee of 12 Euros was very cheap. Now we know why in all the campgrounds we had stayed while we were in Europe, almost everybody had a camping van.
In terms of weather, Sunday May 19 was not the best. It was cloudy and from time to time we got rain shower. It didn't matter though cause we were travelling in a car with J and L to a resort area near Salzburg. I had to say that the views were quite fantastic around the three lakes we went, Wolfgang See, Attersee and Mond See. To top that, as we have a German chef with us, the food choices at lunch and dinner time were excellent. They surpassed continental meals at our last cruise trip :-). We were lucky that the two restaurants we went had excellent chefs. The cost was very reasonable too, 60 and 50 Euros including drinks and tips for the lunch and dinner respectively. Yes, that's the difference between small town and big European cities.
Monday was still a holiday in Austria, Pentecost. As we skipped the Mass on Sunday, we were determined to go to a church, Fransiskanen Kirche where the day earlier I saw would have Mass with Mozart music at 9 AM. We left early from the campground as I knew we would be lost finding it :-). There are so many churches near the area called the Dom (cathedral) in Salzburg. Saying "Wo ist die Fransiskanen Kirche?," where is the church, to a stranger caused us to meet our 'guardian angel'. He said in perfect English to follow him because he knew it was not easy to give direction. When we chatted with him on the way to the church, it turned out that he was married in that same church 37 years ago. No wonder.
We continued our self-tour around Salzburg after the Mass by going to Mozart's Geburthaus (birthplace), Residenz (the palace) and a few others. If you have ever seen 'The Sound of Music', all the shooting for that movie was done in or near Salzburg. Through a tourist promotion booklet for the movie fans, we knew where else was each scene shot or taken and we checked a few. By the time we finished our tour and went back to our campsite, "Marylin" and her partner had already left, so Cecilia and I killed our evening by playing Scrabble :-). In the next episode, I will end this mini-series after we had to return to Zurich again and left for Asia. Till then, bye for now.


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If you love history, Vienna is one the cities in Europe you wouldn't want to miss because it is so rich in history. You name any profession, any specific subject, Vienna has a museum for that. When I was working at the Lab, we developed the PL/I compiler for the S/38, predecessor of AS/400, now called i-Series. We had two assignees from Vienna because the IBM Lab there already developed the PL/I compiler for another system, the 8100. One of them was a bachelor and the other had kids. That was the first time I knew that Vienna's native is crazy about classical music. He was in my team and his very first question was where he could buy or rent a good piano for his kids. Perhaps in the deal with IBM Toronto Lab, cost of musical lesson and quality piano rental for the kids was included because he didn't care much about cost. Now I understand it much better why he was so 'crazy' about music. They are all like that :-). You would also understand if you know that waltz was invented in Vienna.
I am not that keen in learning or knowing about history but one interesting observation was about churches in Swiss and Austria, neighbouring countries. Cecilia and I checked a couple famous churches in Zurich and they looked bare because they had become Protestant churches. Yes, Zwingli was a native of Zurich. You go to churches in Vienna and they would still look 'catholic' :-). If you are Christians I am sure you know what I mean. You go to a Catholic Mass and if the homily or preaching is boring, there are so many other things that you could enjoy :-). The stained glasses, the sculptures and the statues, the painted ceilings, the hundreds of 'dust catchers', oops ornaments. Now you know why Catholics like to go to Mass :-).
May 15, Wednesday, was our second day in Vienna. After taking the free shower, feeling so happy, I prepared breakfast. We brought the instant-coffee, Nestle's three-in-one, from Toronto and this also lasted till we were in Salzburg. I cooked fried rice a la Vienna, left-over rice from dinner the day before with egg and sausages. BTW, Austrian sausages are delicious. Cecilia joined me or woke up as soon as breakfast was ready :-). Don't tell me she is smart. With the Indonesian style or rice breakfast, our energy for the day was enough to do the city tour ourselves, hopping from trains and buses to trams, vice-versa. At around lunch time, having spotted a Chinese restaurant near our campground, we decided we would treat ourselves with oriental dishes a la Vienna before our siesta. The cost of that buffet luncheon was not that bad. Including beer and tips, it cost only 18 Euros for both of us. "The food?," you asked. It was heavenly, compared to my 'Indomie goreng' or instant fried noodle we brought from Toronto.
We had a small surprise when we came back in the evening after a whole day sight-seeing. There was another small tent at one side of the campground. When we arrived and I was ready to prepare for supper, an oriental looking lad approached us. He introduced himself as 'Tony' and asked whether there was kitchen facility. I said I didn't know, it didn't seem so because the guy at the reception office didn't tell us about it. I told him that if he needed to warm-up food or did small cooking he could use my stove. He told me he was going to cook pasta. I said, I was going to prepare dinner and will share some with him. So we chatted while Cecilia and I cooked. He was a student at U. of Victoria in B.C. and was touring Europe. When he told us his itinerary, we thought he was a millionaire or a relative of Korean President Kim Dae Yung. He planned to travel Europe for 70 days! He explained to us however, that he was using the cheapest fare one can tour Europe, a student bus package fare to some number of countries, I believe less than 200 Euros. He had just finished his under-graduate study at U. Vic. and will be returning to Seoul, Korea. If we admired his guts, looking at how young we were and knowing that I just retired, he also became our fans. Knowing we had two children, this Korean boy dared asking if any of them is a girl :-). Indeed, I and him exchanged a few jokes with me making fun of his politicians. I forgot to tell you that as soon as he learned we are Canadians, he moved his tent next to us, only a feet or two apart :-).
We woke up quite early the next day because we wanted to secure the free bike that visitor to Vienna could get. They were scattered in some number of places inside the inner (old) city. After making some effort, we were fortunate to get two bikes in perfect condition, one had a pink colour and the other blue. They perfectly matched our cycling outfits. I didn't know how many people in Vienna that saw us on that day bought Nokia cell-phones. Yes, at the back of the bike, covering the whole rear-wheel on both sides, was a big advertisement of Nokia. After about an hour cycling and checking whether it was worth it to visit Sigmund Freud's museum (pricey :-)), we took a break in Sigmund Freud's Park near Votivkirche. Lo and behold, we saw Tony approaching us from a distance. He probably didn't believe that we do not have any daughter :-). He was amazed seeing us, either he couldn't believe that we were being employed by Nokia or he didn't understand how we could get matching bikes and outfits. :-) Till the next episode where I will share with you the experience of a lifetime when we camped in Salzburg.
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When we first arrived at the Venice train station, the local people call it Ferovio, I inquired as to how much was the reservation cost for the night train. After taking two trips and seeing how empty were the 1st class wagons, we decided to take a chance by not taking the sleeping wagon and thus saved 50 Euros. I had once taken the sleeping couchette on the train from Lourdes (Tarbes) to Paris in France. It was crammy and unless you sleep, it is not comfortable. If our compartment could be 'monopolized', Cecilia and I would be able to sleep even better than in a sleeping couchette.
The train for Vienna started quite on time at 20:46 and I took the time to check the two wagons earlier. They had about 30% occupancy rate, pretty safe :-). We forgot that even though it was weekday, we were not the only ones from Italy who wanted to go to Vienna. At every station thereafter, whenever people boarded and entered our wagon, we held our breath :-). We didn't want to arrive in Vienna without having slept at all because it would be in the morning. After several stations and about an hour passed by, we knew that our gamble paid off. We had one bench each in the compartment to snore as we pleased :-).
There were two nuisances despite the comfy 'bed' we had on that night. The Austrian passport officer who dared to wake us up :-) and the train conductor later-on checking again our train tickets. I woke up quite early, as soon as the light from the sun started to creep in. When I glanced outside the window, I had to hold my breath again because it was very scenic. I think it was around Echberg, still in the Alps region as our train was still 1.5 hours from Vienna. The train arrived precisely at 6:27 in Wien's Suedbahnhof (Vienna South-station). We spent about an hour sipping coffee at the station while studying the Vienna's public transportation and how could we go to our campground, Wien West. After the self-study crash-course, we purchased two 72 hours ticket for a total of 21.20 Euros, about US $ 3.50 per day. From the map that we got, we figured out that we needed 2 transfers to reach our campground. First, we had to take what they call the S-Bahn, their rapid transit train from Suedbahnhof to a station called Karlsplatz. Then we had to take their U-Bahn or their subway system to a station at the west end called Huetteldorf. Finally, a bus number 148 or 152 should be there waiting to take us another 3 km to the campground. We became very familiar with all the U-Bahn (there are four lines) as well as the train and tram during our stay in Vienna. In my opinion, it is much more efficient than our poor Toronto Transit Comm. :-). Toronto tourist wouldn't be able with just Cdn $ 5 to do a city tour for 24 hours. The trains and buses frequency also beats ours.
When we arrived at Wien West campground, finally, we were very pleased with everything. Surely it is not a scenic campsite, what do you expect of a campsite inside a city. However, it was very clean, we could take shower for 24 hours if we wanted to :-). The all-you-can-shower camping fee was 13 Euros per night cheap. On top of that, we learned later that we could also use the kitchen facility. We took advantage to wash our clothes here because the dryer was also free and we still knew how to wash clothes by hands. (There was a special sink that had grooves just like Indonesian washing board). As usual, we took an early "siesta" for 1 hour after we cooked our breakfast and thus made our stomach happy.
Not wanting to waste time in this great city of Europe, having mastered the public transportation system, we went downtown. We chosed first to stroll along the famous street in Vienna, Kaerntner Strasze. Like Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich, Kaerntner is also an exclusive street, meaning expensive items sold there. Not too far walking, we came across an information booth that also sold opera tickets. We were told that the cheapest seat for Romeo and Juliette was 120 Euros. We had lots of excuses, we wouldn't be able to understand the German translation anyway and we didn't bring our suits, only cycling short and jersey :-). As dusk fell, we went back to the city after our real siesta at the campground. Even though Wien West is quite a distance from the city centre, because of the efficient public transportation we were not tired going back and forth several times per day. Having been serenaded a few times by the Blue Danube song in San Marco piazza in Venice, we wanted to see that famous river. Upon seeing for the very first time, one of its tributaries near the U-Bahn station Schwedenplatz, we were quite disappointed because the water was very brown and not blue at all :-). The same brown water was there to see when we checked the main river for the second time on the next day. Well, I then realized, had Cecilia and I seen the river after we married for 27 hours and not 27 years, I was sure the river would have looked blue :-). Take care my friends, till the next episode where we will share the excitement of biking around Vienna. Auf wiederschreiben.
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We managed to walk for about an hour from the train station to our hotel near San Marco piazza without too much of a problem because we carried day packs only. If you have been to Venice, you would likely agree with me that it was not easy to find ways. I had to rely on my compass and the city map from the tourist office at the train station where only main streets had names. Whenever I was not certain, I asked old lady for direction. If the alley way in my birthplace Jakarta is small, some of the streets for pedestrian in Venice are even smaller. That city was built by joining 117 little islands and only through walking would you be able to experience its uniqueness.
After walking for quite some time and hearing complaints from my partner :-) because I walked too fast, we were happy to find our hotel, Noemi. We secured a room there with the help of Father Kusmaryanto after he called the camping place we intended to stay. It was far from Venice, about 1.5 hour by boat and then taxi. The last word scared us :-). So Father Kus called a couple or so hotel and found that Noemi only charged 73 Euro. We were speechless and couldn't argue with the guy at the reception desk when he told us the rate was 87 Euro. He shook his head when we mentioned that our friend reserved the room with the lower rate. Not to spoil our trip nor tarnished the image of Canadian :-) we asked if we could stay for 2 nights since we only reserved it for 1 night. No vacancy. When we started to go out and found a 3-star hotel next door, Best Western, we came in. "Do you have a vacant double room for tomorrow night?," I asked the guy. "Yes." "How much is the rate?" "Two hundred fifty Euros." I felt much better after saying thank you very much, staying at Hotel Noemi :-).
We strolled along San Marco piazza and did some window shopping, admiring the beautiful work of art in Venetian glasses. The romanticness of Venice started in that piazza where we could listen to couple bands playing romantic music. It was so powerful that we could see two guys kissing and caressing one another when we took our 'boat tour' in what is called vaporetto, public boat. That was how we did our main sightseeing, using the boat to check the island city of Venice. As happened in Milan, the mayor of Venice must know that we were celebrating our anniversary. In the evening, we had another free choral performances in 'Festa di Primavera 2002', that was held not too far from San Marco. It was the grand final of a singing competition of the best Italian singers in Venice and nearby.
Let's skip the rest of the night story after we returned from the show and the planet Jupiter in the Gemini constellation above us told your Gemini boy to not forget that Venice means romance :-). Let's fast forward to the morning of May 13 in Venice. After a do-it-yourself breakfast in the hotel, we were on our way to catch the vaporetto to Murano island. It is the island where the famous Venetian glasses are manufactured or rather are designed and created. A nice looking gentleman approached us and introduced himself as a representative from Murano tourist office. What a coincidence, I said to myself, this guy knew where we were heading. He told us that only twice a week, the Murano promotion office offered free personal trip to visitor interested in seeing how Venetian glasses are made. We jumped at the opportunity and he escorted us to a motorboat (that could accomodate 10 passengers or so). We hopped into the motorboat and off we went to Murano island. As the boat was quite small compared to a vaporetto (that could accomodate 100 passengers) he took a short-cut going inside the city or the small canals because Murano island was on the other side. Again, I wished I could paddle a canoe through those canals :-). Only after the boat docked in one of the Venetian glass companies entrance did we realize we had been had :-). To cut the story short, it was not too bad though. We had a private demo on how one made the various glasses. We checked the store wares and just exclaimed 'beautiful' from time to time to appreciate our host generosity :-). Yes, the cheapest item was in the hundred of Euros, the beauties would wipe our budget :-). We were glad when the company guy showed us the door to the street. Didn't I tell you earlier, Italian are friendly people?
After visiting that pricey company store, prices of a few items at ordinary stores in the island looked so cheap that my wife went for a shopping spree thereafter. Perhaps that guy at San Marco piazza was genuinely from Murano tourist office :-). Since we were not able to stay for another night in Venice, we got ourselves ready in the afternoon for the night train to Vienna. We intentionally didn't reserve a sleeping couchette in the train and took a calculated risk. We will share with you what happened on that night train in the next episode. Take care, bye for now.
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If you visited devout Christians' homes in Jakarta, among all the 'dust catchers', you will likely find the painting I told you earlier. BTW, I just learned about that new term 'dust catcher' from our host H in Zurich. He was right, all the ornaments that we put up at home, are basically meant to catch dust, especially if you visit my home :-). It was quite easy for us, besides we have Fr. Kus who can swear in Italian :-), to find Il Cenacolo Vinciano. Indeed it was nothing but a dining room, next to the church called Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie, Our Lady of Grace said the English people. The Dominican friars who (till this day) administered the church lived next door. At one time, they commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to paint a wall in that dining room so that the friars won't get bored just seeing their colleagues while eating the bland food :-). Centuries of damage from all kind of perils, floods, bombing and likely the smoke from the kitchen next door caused that famous painting, The Last Supper, to be in poor quality. If you have one at your home you are better off adoring yours and you save a bundle of money :-). However, I am certain that if Fr. Kus becomes the Pope one day, he will surely tell the Dominicans to lower the entrance fee. Kidding aside, were it not for Fr. Kus's excellent salesmanship and charism, this story would not exist. It turned out that you need to reserve the ticket several days before you can get in to Il Cenacolo. The Japanese tourists must have caused it :-). When we were at the ticket counter, we were told that tickets were sold out. Starting with 'buon giorno' Fr. Kus convinced the lady in (must be) perfect Italian that his two Canadian friends had come all the way just to see The Last Supper and would be leaving tomorrow, something like that :-). Having an Italian compassion, the lady squeezed in the three of us into a group that had just entered the vestibule to the room.
To compensate our pocket book after spending 29 Euro just to see a faded painting on a wall, we went to a castle museum that was once a fortress, Castello Sforzesco. The most important, this museum was free :-). However, after our kids did not like to go with us anymore to the museum, I also am not that enthusiastic about it. It is not interesting to explain things to Cecilia :-), playing Scrabble with her is more exciting. We spent the rest of the afternoon of May 11 with Fr. Kus, sightseeing from the trams. We saw Father to the train station because he has to get back to his study in Rome. His calling is not to be a tour guide :-).
We were fortunate again in the evening. After attending the Vigil Mass at the Duomo, we came back in the evening to enjoy a special concert performed by Orchestra Sinfonica Academia Concertante d'Archi di Milano in honour of our wedding anniversary :-). It was of course a free concert and we were able to get good seats in that lovely catedral. I think the stained-glass in Duomo is one of the most beautiful in the world. Two pieces were performed by that Milan Symphony Orchestra, Dvorak's Symphony IX, Dal Nuovo Mondo, there is a new world, said my friends from Marriage Encounter :-). The last piece was Haydn's Mass (Messa in Augustiis) complete with the sopran, alto, tenor and bass singers. Dona nobis pacem was the last song and indeed we felt so peaceful when we had to leave the Duomo that night and went back to our Albergo Italia.
As I said earlier, I love Milan and our experiences in that fashion city of Italy. The Italian people are like Indonesian, very friendly. I once said, you can tell Indonesian or Italian coming or leaving at Toronto Pearson International Airport just by looking at how many people greet or send them away. Since we were going to another unique Italian city, Venice, in the morning of May 12, we were as excited. I had anticipated our arrival into the Venice train station because S, my canoeing buddy and teacher told me about how wonderful was the scenery when she entered Venice in the morning and she could see the sea from her train. Perhaps we arrived too late in the morning or nearing noon. It was just a so-so view, nothing magical. Perhaps we have been married too long because indeed Venice is a romantic city. We left both our backpacks at the train station that cost 5 Euros per pack per 12 hours. We then walked for about an hour from the train station to our hotel near the San Marco piazza where the tourists from all over the world gathered.
In the next episode, I will share with you some more exciting things we experienced in Venice, including a private boat tour courtesy of Venice "tourist promotion" office to the famous island of Murano where they make the Venetian glasses :-). Stay tune, buon giorno or buena noce, ciao.
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We have been to the Canadian Rockies but never to the Alps. Being a mountain climber when I was a youth in Indonesia, I had been reading about European mountains such as the Matterhorn, Zermatt, Jungfrau, etc. Even though we didn't have the time to visit those peaks, we were very satisfied with the scenic fiesta that were bestowed upon us when the train started to enter the Alps region in our Zurich-Milan route. What made it so beautiful and breathtaking was when we saw peaks with ice-caps and glaciers on one side of our view and turquoise green lakes on another side of the picture postcard scenery. I just wished I could paddle my canoe on those lakes :-). Lake Lugano which is not far from the Italian border was one of the most beautiful, no wonder it is a resort area for the Swiss and Italian people.
Zurich-Milan was the first of our allowed 5 days Eurailpass trip. There were only 2 wagons of 1st class fare, the rest were 2nd class wagons. However, they were almost empty. Throughout the 5 days we were able to have a private compartment (6 persons sitting) because there were not too many 1st class fare passengers. The trains in the 3 countries we travelled were pretty clean and so were the washrooms. Their schedules were quite precise, departing and arriving as planned. I love train travel because it allows me to do many things while on the train. We don't have to waste time going through security check and wait for hours like when we travel with airplane. We don't have to fight traffic, especially in the cities like when we go with car. Seating in a train first class compartment is even better than airplane 1st class, with one exception. There are no stewardesses to serve you :-) but if you fly Air Canada, only old ladies serve 1st class passengers anyway because it seems that one has to work for 25 years before being promoted to serve 1st class passengers in the North American airlines :-).
When the train passed Chiasso, Swiss border town after Lugano, the Italian immigration officer embarked and checked our passport. The train arrived at Milan central station at 3:35 PM, about 2 minutes difference from the written schedule. I haven't told you yet. There is no camping facility in Milan. The closest campground is in another town and it will be too long or a waste of time to go back and forth from that campground to Milan. The same thing in Venice. So we decided early to stay in a modest hotel in both Milan and Venice. Through our Europe Lonely Planet book, we were able to find the closest hotel to the station, Abergo Italia. The rate was not too bad for that one star hotel, 70 Euro per night. Our room was quite spacious and there was a bath or shower inside. We stayed for 4 nights in Milan and we enjoyed the city very much. We arrived on May 8 and thus had one more day preparation prior to celebrating our 27th wedding anniversary at the Duomo :-). One small note, besides US $ traveller's cheque, I also purchased (American Express) Euro T.C. It was not widely accepted yet. So I cashed them all in Milan at an Amex office. Milan's transportation system was one of the best in the cities we travelled. It has 3 main subway lines, M1 to M3 and numerous tram and buses. The best deal was to buy a 48 hours ticket that entitled us to use any kind of public transportation, 5.50 Euro. Like in Zurich, this was the way we do our own sightseeing and were able to go to many places in the city. We love Italian food and having a sweet-tooth, eating Gelato (Italian ice cream) outside a cafe was like sitting in a paradise for me :-).
Father Kusmaryanto joined us on our D-Day, May 10th, coming straight from Rome to bless us :-). Yes, he celebrated the Eucharist on our 25th wedding anniversary in Rome in AD 2000, together with 6 other Indonesian priests. I am looking forward however to the time he will graduate from his study and be able to celebrate my 30th wedding anniversary with him in Pasang Surut or Deso Musi Banyu Asin near Palembang :-). That's one of the reasons I keep exercising and try to be fit all the time. One needs superman energy to survive in that harsh environment.
After meeting Father Kus at the train station, since it was already late or lunch time, we went to a nice Italian restaurant and enjoyed another fine Italian meal, thanks to the Italiano ability of our translator :-). Then we went to the Duomo and prayed in front of Fr. Kus's patron saint, Carolus Borromeus whose body was rested in a crypt at the cathedral basement. We had prime and excellent time throughout our blessed May 10th day together with Fr. Kus.
However, in the next episode we will tell you about how pissed-off was the gentle Fr. Kus upon visiting JUST a dining room called Il Cenacolo where we had to pay 29 Euro for seeing a faded picture that was painted on the wall of that dining room :-). Take care my friends, hope you like my story so far. Ciao.
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Remember when I was disappointed that my young wife wouldn't want to walk 4 km with her pack from Zurich train station to the campground? I said, "When we were doing portaging you could carry your pack and sometimes the canoe for kilometres distance. How come you already gave up before the 'battle'?" Indeed she won the war and I was wrong because again and again, she was so loved by 'Oom Han' (intimate name for God used by Indonesian youth). A week before we left for Zurich, we went for our routine dental check-up. Mei-mei, the doctor's private 'dental assistant' :-) mentioned to us while helping her hubby whether we still remember C, our Indo friend who once lived in TO but then emigrated to Swiss and lives in Zurich. Of course but we didn't think of asking any help. To cut the story short, Madame a.k.a. Bu Tien of Toronto called C and we got a limo pick-up from the airport :-). C came with her Mercedesz and then drove us from the airport to the campground! To top that, C and her husband, a native Schweizer from Zurich invited us over for dinner the next day. Now you know more why I kept saying to you all, thank you always for your prayers :-).
As soon as we said farewell to C, we put up our tent and took an early siesta because we didn't sleep well on the short flight from Toronto to Zurich. A couple hours sleep was all that we needed before we started our venture to downtown Zurich. We learned first hand how expensive is everything in Switzerland when the campsite attendant told us the fee, 33.50 Swiss franc (Sfr) per night. On top of that fee, taking a shower at the campground would cost us another 2 Sfr for just 3 minutes. For Net addicts, cost of an Internet connection is 15 Sfr an hour. BTW, one Sfr is approximately the same as 1 Canadian dollar. Our campground was on the shore of Lake Zurich, about 4 km from the train station which is in downtown. We have to transfer from the bus to tram at a place called Buerkliplatz. All European bus and tram systems are not too complicated. Once we learn one system, it should be easy to learn another. Strolling along the famous street in Zurich, Bahnhofstrasse, where only the rich can afford to buy things, restored our confidence. We felt like a rich couple, sort of Japanese tourists who stayed at a five-star hotel and not at Camping Seebuch where we lived :-). After all, the Schweizer won't be able to distinguish our Indonesian from Japanese :-). Here on Banhofstrasse you would start to see big Swiss banks with signs, 'by appointment only'. I can only imagine the Indonesian tycoons going in and out to such banks.
Zurich is not a big city compared to say Milan or Vienna; it is much smaller than Toronto. Therefore, it was very convenient for us to do the city tour ourselves. We hopped on a tram after checking its route and compared or looked to the city map from time to time. This way we would know what building we were passing or which area we were in. The help of my small Suunto compass was very valuable especially at times where we emerged from the cities subways and wanted to go to certain places. As Cecilia once said, this is the main difference or advantage of doing your own tour than taking an arranged one. You are free to go to places where you would like to and you can take your own time once you are there. Almost in all package tours that we knew of, there was a gang-up between the tour provider and the local merchant. From time to time you would likely be whisked to places where you either would be hard-sold to buy the goods or would waste your time in a shop you hate :-).
If you recall, my friends at the IBM Toronto Lab showered me with gifts upon my retirement. A and M who took care of the shopping included a Cdn $ 100 gift certificate from MEC. Prior to our trip, while biking along with J and D my cycling buddies from the office, we went to Mountain Equipment Co-op for a shopping spree. I bought a new MSR gas stove and also its cooking set. They were excellent. Cooking rice was a breeze. Cecilia's estimate on the food we brought was near perfect too. Not too much, just enough to last. We ate our last rice meal in Salzburg and we didn't even throw one grain. I had to buy 2 canisters of Camping Gaz cartridges, unfortunately I had to leave the last one half-full because it wouldn't be allowed to board the plane with us :-). Zurich was still quite cold when we were there from May 6 till the 8th. Our down-filled sleeping bag, the fleece jacket and headband provided enough warm that we were able to sleep soundly, despite the train traffic by the campsite.
In spite of the pricey Zurich or Switzerland, we were happy and felt blessed upon seeing the beautiful scenery on our train journey from Zurich to Milan on May 8. I will tell you more about this Alpine route beauty in the next episode. Till then, auf wiedersehen.

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Many years ago, when I was much younger I read a book entitled "Europe in 50 $ a day". It was not a Canadian book, therefore the currency was in US dollars. The author did not mention camping ground at all but highlight places where one could eat decent meals and stayed at budget hotels. I knew before I went backpacking to Europe that it would be impossible these days to budget 50 dollars per day in Europe unless you are still young and healthy, thus can carry your "food and lodge" in your backpack. That was what we, Cecilia and I did, starting our journey of a lifetime, May 5, 2002 from Toronto to Zurich, Switzerland.

Knowing I could still portage a canoe (don't tell people that it is a Kevlar one :-)), I know I can put our three-season tent, sleeping bag, Therm-a-rest (for non-camper readers: it is a sleeping pad), cooking set, stove, eating utensils, and most important, FOOD in my backpack. At the end of our European trip on May 22, when I did the final calculation of our expenses, we spent an average of US$ 80 per day. We didn't really 'live miserably', we were only cautious in our expenses. If we had to spend, like celebrating our 27th wedding anniversary in Milan (Father Kusmaryanto can testify) we didn't hesitate to eat in a fancy restaurant :-). When it was our belief that it was worth it to buy a package deal like the Salzburg 3 days card for visiting all the museums and other major tourist attractions, we bought the 32 Euro ticket. Yes, we didn't spend $ 500 on a La Scala opera ticket in Milan but we had free musical symphony concert in the famous and beautiful cathedral (called Duomo).

We didn't enter Europe through the front door nor did we go through the back door or the cheapest way but rather we came through the side door. Hence, it will be my story's title of our journey of the spring time of Anno Domini 2002 in Europe. Sit tight my friends, this story will be as exciting as Mr. Lantern Coleman's one if not more :-). Because of my love for my Canadian and native English speaker friends that I am writing this story in my second language despite the fact that I am a better writer in Indonesian :-). Let me begin with sharing our trip planning a bit with you.

As you all know, because I am a retiree now and Cecilia is her own boss at home, we have a lot of flexibility in our trip length. However, being a devout Catholic my wife wanted to come back to Toronto before the World Youth Day 2002 event so that she can meet the Pope again. We met or rather saw him last on May 10, 2000 when we were in Rome celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. We also knew we wanted to stay for about a month in Indonesia so that we would have enough time to meet our families and friends. Thus, we planned to be around (but not more than) 3 weeks in Europe and later on around 2 weeks in Australia and New Zealand. This would leave about a month in Indonesia, our birthplaces.

After reading about 10 Lonely Planet books on Europe, also having been to some other countries, we picked Switzerland, Italy and Austria as the 3 countries and chose Zurich, Milan, Venice, Vienna and Salzburg as the 5 cities we would be staying. Yes, this way we (started to) saved on the Eurailpass ticket because there was a special fare of visiting 3 countries in 5 days train travel. It was also a good deal because the ticket was first class fare. If your age is beyond 50 like ours :-), we recommend first class fare Eurorail ticket rather than a second class. It was much worth it, especially when we took the night train from Venice to Vienna (I will tell you more about this). So, our schedule in Europe was quite set. We intentionally left it open as to how many days we would spend in each of the 5 cities. The Canadians say, let's play by the ear or rather as it turned out by the cost of the enjoyment :-).

That's for now. In the next episode I will share with you our Zurich camping experiences. If you recall or are aware of, Cecilia and I fought before we went. In my opinion she was sissy, not willing to walk 4 km from Zurich train station to the campsite. In her opinion, of course I was wrong :-). Wait how this battle turned out to be :-).

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